January 7, 2011

He’s probably the best rap hypeman ever to do it, short of maybe Flavor Flav. He’s clearly a loyal and self-deprecating friend. He puts more talented people’s interests above his own, always. And yet, no one cares. Jay-Z and Memphis Bleek met in a Marcy courtyard back in the early ’90s, and since then–minus an early episode excruciatingly detailed in Jay’s recent Decoded, in which he had to punish his friend for getting lazy–the two have been nearly inseparable. Who else would do the policeman parts on “99 Problems”? But Bleek has made plenty of his own music throughout the years too, often with a dreamteam of collaborators (Just Blaze, Jay, Freeway, Beanie Sigel, among many other other Roc-a-Fella greats). It is sad that in 2011, nobody remembers. Well, nobody except SOTC pal Sean Fennessey. He just curated a double-disc tribute to the man: